Nav Social Menu

How to Use Infographics on Your Blog to Grow Leads

Did you know that infographics have the highest engagement rates of any content type? And..that your blog post is more likely to go viral if it’s an infographic?

Many marketers don’t know this, but it’s actually true. An information-packed infographic not only draws more eyeballs but can increase your site traffic significantly. When used correctly, these content pieces also boost brand credibility thanks to the hard numbers as well as improving both SEO and content marketing ROI.

Below, we look at eight ways to generate more leads with your infographics for an increased return on your investment.

#2: Optimize Infographics for Search Engines (SEO)

There’s one thing most marketers forget when creating infographics; they aren’t crawlable. You can’t publish your infographic on your website hoping that Google will crawl and rank the page like it does with other web pages. It doesn’t work like that. Why? Because infographics aren’t text files!

After creating your infographic, you’ll save it as an image i.e. .gif, .gpg, or .png. Image files cannot be crawled by search engines.

You can still optimize your infographics for search engines, though. You just need to do it differently. The following are four tips to consider:

Choose the right file name

Ensure that the file is named correctly as Google uses file names to determine file contents. To this end, steer clear of generic file names such as image013.png. Instead, choose a name such as digital-marketing-stats-2018-infographic.png to tell Google that your content is about digital marketing stats in 2018.

Optimize the ALT text

Alt texts help people know the contents of a file if the file doesn’t open properly. It also helps search engines understand the contents of your file. Make your alt text is as clear as possible. Also, it should contain your keywords.

Optimize the URL

First off, the URL must be as short as possible. Four to five words should be enough as digital consumers are wary of long URLs. Secondly, the URL should include relevant keywords. It also helps to include your brand name in your URLs.

Optimize the meta description

The meta description is the sentence or two that appears below the clickable blue link in search engine result pages. It tells users what to expect when they click on the link. Your meta description should accurately describe the contents of your infographic and include at least one of your keyword phrases.

Include supporting text at the beginning

A short introduction explaining what the infographic is about can prove valuable to both readers and search engines. Some marketers also provide a summary just below the infographic. Both of these can help with SEO.

#3: Share Widely and Aggressively on Social Media

Obviously, the first place you want to publish your infographic is on your website. That’s okay. However, don’t stop at just the website. You need to also share the infographic on your blog as well as social media networks. The following are a few tips on how to go about infographic sharing in general:

Provide an embeddable code

An embed code makes it easy for other website owners to display your infographic on their websites. All they have to do is copy and embed the code to their websites and just like that, the infographic will be displayed on their sites, with a backlink to your website! The ideal place to place the code is below the infographic, just before the conclusion (if you have one).

Add social sharing buttons

Social media is where viral shares occur, so you want to have your infographics there as well. Begin by posting the infographic on your social media accounts as an update. Then, provide social share buttons on your site to encourage sharing.

Ask for shares

Don’t be shy to ask both your website and blog visitors as well as your social media followers to share the infographic.

Share via email

Create an email message specifically promoting the infographic and send it to your subscriber list. Whether or not to include the infographic itself in the email is up to you. Just make sure to insert a link to your website.

Turn sections of the infographic into ready-made social media posts

Three social networks to consider are Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. For Pinterest, create thematic boards to showcase your infographics. B2B companies should also share their infographics on LinkedIn.

#4: Promote your Infographics Using Paid Ads

Organic reach is hardly ever sufficient in marketing. Moreover, you must be aware that on Facebook, for example, organic posts only reach about 6% of your audience. Business2Community thinks it’s even lower than that. In a July 2018 post, one of the Business2Community contributors says that organic posts now reach just 1% of your audience.

So, what are you supposed to do? Mark Zuckerberg gave an answer to this question about a year ago, saying; “Like TV, radio, newspapers, search, and pretty much all other marketing platforms, Facebook is a lot more effective when businesses use paid media.”

For infographic marketing, we recommend that you consider paid ads on:

Google

Top social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter)

Answer websites

Forums such as Quora

On Facebook, aside from the popular promoted ads, consider sponsored stories too. Piktochart has developed an elaborate guide to help you create effective sponsored Facebook stories for your infographics.

As with other paid advertisements, test and keep track of your campaign to find out if you’re getting the desired ROI. Among other things, find out which headlines, descriptions, and ad types bring you the highest ROI.

#5: Pitch the Infographic to Other Web Resources

When looking to get your infographic in front of as many people as possible, getting help from others is another worthwhile idea. Find people who own websites, blogs, video channels, and popular social media accounts to help you spread the message. Here are a few tips that have been proven to work;

Pitch to blogs

You probably have an active list of popular bloggers that you’ve often partnered with (if you don’t, you should create one). Reach out to them and ask if you can publish the infographic on their blog in form of a guest post.

Connect with influencers

Influencers are people in your niche who enjoy massive following. They’re mostly bloggers and social media gurus. These people can help you put your infographic in front of millions of people. Again, ask first. Reach out to them via email or social media and find one or two who are willing to promote your infographic.

Reach out to curation websites

There are tons of curation websites out there where you can publish your infographics. These include Scoopit, and Curata. These platforms too can help you reach millions of people.

#6: Brand and Co-Brand to Reach a New Audience

Many marketers forget about the power of branding when creating infographics. Just as with other marketing material, branding your infographics boosts credibility and increases customer loyalty. If you’re already a recognized brand in your industry, infographics with your logo and other branding elements will enjoy instant attention and high engagement rates.

The following are a few ways to brand your infographics:

Put your logo on it

This can be extremely valuable if people are already familiar with the logo. They will right away want to look at and share your infographics.

Include your tagline

Taglines like “Just Do It” from Nike and “Think Different” from Apple are also instantly recognized. If you have a well-known tagline, it could help drive reach and engagement.

Include your brand message

Aside from taglines, many brands also have other brand messaging such as mission and values. These too can be included in your infographic to remind your audience about your brand.

Co-branding, meanwhile, means two brands coming together for a joint promotional campaign. Both parties benefit because you get to reach each other’s audiences. To avoid conflict while maximizing ROI, rather than direct competitors, choose partners from complementary sectors.

#7: Repurpose To Maximize Reach

Infographics can help you attain your content marketing goals but you can go even further! To ensure that the message reaches everyone in a format that they like, it’s wise to re-purpose your infographic into other content formats and vice versa.

Turn your infographics into other content formats

You can turn your infographics into just about any other content format. For instance, you can create a blog post out of that infographic. Tools such as Piktochart also make it possible to turn your infographics into slideshares, webinars, and e-books.

Turn other content types to infographics

You can also turn other content types into infographics to generate even more leads. Common content types that can be turned into infographics include e-books, videos, and industry reports.

#8: End with a Clear Call-to-Action

You’ve got everything spot on up this point. You now have thousands or possibly millions of eyeballs on your infographics. What’s left is to convert that traffic into leads. That’s where Calls to Action (CTAs) come in.

What do you want the viewers to do after seeing and potentially liking your infographic? Do they fill out a simple form on the page for more information? Do they subscribe to your mailing list to receive more of the same? Or, do they call you to get a quote?

Tell them what to do right on the page and the majority of them will do just that! This is a key for infographics to ultimately be successful, they need to lead to a next step taken for your key audience being targeted.

Mike Gingerich is an expert on Lead Generation. A Facebook, Social Media, Online Marketing and Business Leader, Mike helps businesses improve lead capture, grow sales, and increase business effectiveness. Mike brings 10+ years building strategies for TabSite and other brands to increase awareness, sales, and maximize ROI in both B2B and B2C companies. His expertise is in developing and outlining effective online marketing and business strategies that deliver results, drive revenue, build healthy companies and yield positive ROI.

About Mike Gingerich

Mike Gingerich is an expert on Lead Generation. A Facebook, Social Media, Online Marketing and Business Leader, Mike helps businesses improve lead capture, grow sales, and increase business effectiveness. Mike brings 10+ years building strategies for TabSite and other brands to increase awareness, sales, and maximize ROI in both B2B and B2C companies. His expertise is in developing and outlining effective online marketing and business strategies that deliver results, drive revenue, build healthy companies and yield positive ROI.

I’ve been always wondering how to add an infographics to my blog posts. But this article made me understand in a better way. Designing infographics is definitely the most difficult part and with a better CTA, the entire infographics gets much better!

I have recently started designing infographic for my blog and the result I got out of it is really amazing. I totally agree with the fact that infographic conveys information in a much easier and precise way. Although, I have started designing infographic so I didn’t knew about it much. After reading this article I get to know some mind-blowing tricks which I’ll be using for my future blog posts. Thanks for sharing such a quality post… :)

A great way to optimize the Infographic for the search engines is to write n accessible description. This has the benefit of also reaching people who use screen readers. The key is to include all the information in the Infographic, and add any words required to explain what would be missed without the visual aspect.

If that makes the page text too long for your liking (or for mobile users with limited screen space), use the “details” tag to hide the text from site. It can still be pulled down through a “summary” tag, so it is visible to screen readers and spiders automatically, and visible to all others with a simple tap or click.

Primary Sidebar

FOLLOW ME!

COME SEE ME SPEAK LIVE!

PRE-ORDER MY NEW BOOK!

LOOKING TO BETTER LEVERAGE LINKEDIN?

LEARN THE LATEST ABOUT INFLUENCER MARKETING

USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARD THAT I USE!

ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.